Sticks and Stones
by FireMoon42
Summary: Two young dwarflings are exploring new woods when they find themselves in a sticky situation. Oneshot.


**Sticks and Stones**

 **AN: Warning, broken bones, nothing seriously graphic, but rated T to be sure.**

* * *

The red and brown leaves rustled under Fili's small boots as he trudged through the woods with his brother clinging to his back, little arms wrapped around his neck. Although they both knew it would still be a few years before Fili started learning to hunt, they searched for signs of wild animals, delighted when they discovered that this area of the forest seemed to be teeming with deer. The day was pale and grey and the chill autumn breeze nipped at their faces, but that did not discourage them in the slightest.

They were in a for them previously unexplored area about a mile and a half away from the nearest settlement of Men, and Kili was chattering away animatedly while the elder's arms began to grow numb from his weight.

"Run, my pony! Run fast like a deer!" Kili crowed, pretending to be a valiant hunter astride a majestic steed instead of a scrawny dwarfling who delighted in pushing his big brother's patience to the limits.

Fili snorted like a pony, making his rider giggle, and forced himself into a loping jog. "Pony is getting tired with the hunter bouncing around like that," he huffed soon after.

"All right, the hunter will walk so Fee the Pony can rest."

Fee the Pony sighed in relief when Kili relinquished his hold on him and slid to the ground. They continued on through the forest. Kili quickly grew bored of simply walking, and after he poked in mild interest at one of Fili's arms, which hung limply at his sides, he pranced on ahead to shoot at imaginary monsters with an imaginary bow.

Spying a large drift of fallen leaves, Fili grinned wickedly, racing towards his brother with a mock roar. Kili yelped in surprise when he suddenly found himself tackled around the middle and landed with his brother in a tangle of limbs in the leaves.

He struggled to his feet, only to fall again with his elbows planted in Fili's stomach, and cackled hysterically at the ' _oof!'_ his brother let out.

Fili thrust his hands upwards, catching Kili in the chest and tossing him out of the pile of leaves. Rolling out after him, they climbed to their feet. Fili straightened up and glanced around at their surroundings as they continued walking.

He was starting to reconsider their poking around in these strange new woods. A feeling of unease was prickling at the back of his mind, and he glanced up apprehensively at the grey sky. Mere rain had never stopped the two of them from going out, but he knew from experience that Kili was terrified of thunderstorms. There was another feeling nagging at him, one that he couldn't quite place. _I wonder why we've never come here before with Uncle Thorin…_ He had the sudden urge to turn around immediately and head back to more familiar parts.

Fili slowed his pace, and noticed that while he had been lost in thought, Kili had sprung ahead of him again.

"Kili," he called, "come back. I don't like the look of the sky right now. Maybe we should just go back to somewhere closer to home."

He began to turn in the direction to take them on a shortcut back to the woods surrounding the settlement where they lived, and Kili bounded after him.

Suddenly, something snapped in the underbrush and he flinched, startled by the sound. At first he thought it might be some sort of animal, but it seemed to have come from _underneath_ their feet. Then the ground beneath them gave way, and they were falling, falling amidst a flurry of twigs and leaves and branches.

Moments later Fili heard a sickening _crack_ , the breath rushed out of him as he landed flat on his back, and something hard struck against his temple, sending the world spiralling into darkness.

* * *

 _Thump. Thump._ There was a whimpering sound. _Thump._ A pitiful voice echoed inside of Fili's head, but he could not make out any words. _Thump._ The pounding in his skull increased as the voice grew more and more agitated. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, trying to clear his mind and make sense of the world. A few moments passed, and the words began to take shape.

"Fee? Wake up, Fee! Please wake up!"

With a jolt, he realized that the voice was coming from his little brother, who must have been somewhere to his left, judging by the direction the sound came from. He tried to lift his head, opening his eyes, but his vision swam red and a wave of nausea swept over him, forcing him to lay his head back down with a groan.

"Can you hear me, Fee? Wake up, please!"

He had to come to his senses. He knew it. _Something is wrong with Kili, something must have happened to him after the fall!_ Steeling himself, Fili slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. He paused for a moment, keeping his head bowed and his eyes closed as he waited for the roaring of blood in his ears to lessen.

Then he glanced over at his brother, and his heart dropped into his stomach. "Oh, no…"

Kili was lying oddly on his side, his left leg stretched out at an awkward angle and badly stuck between a heavy branch and the large, uneven rocks upon which they had landed. The leg was obviously badly broken, with the foot wrenched at a near right angle to the knee.

And yet he knew that they were still lucky to have escaped _this_ lightly, for a fall such as this could have broken a deer's neck. Their strong Dwarf bones were not broken easily, but that also meant that when they did, it was an incredibly painful ordeal.

Fili scrambled to his brother's side on all fours and knelt beside him. "Mahal, Kee, are you all right?" He immediately winced and mentally kicked himself. _Stupid. Stupid! Of course he's not alright! Look at his leg, you fool!_ His chest constricted in panic when he took a closer look. A shard of pale pink bone protruded from above Kili's boot, and the area around where it had pierced his trouser leg was stained a deep, dark crimson.

"Fee, help…" A high-pitched whimper escaped Kili's throat. He began to raise his head to peer down at his leg.

"Don't look down!" Fili warned quickly. His heart pounded. He had to keep Kili's attention focused on him, not knowing how the youngster would react upon seeing his own mangled leg.

Kili squeezed his eyes shut against the pain in his leg as the hair was gently brushed from his face. "Branch…," he moaned through clenched teeth.

"I'm going to lift it off. Just try to keep your eyes closed." Fili's voice was strained as he struggled to remain calm. The younger nodded ever so slightly in consent. Fili scooted to where he could hold the branch well with both hands, and, taking a deep breath, began to pull it upwards. Kili whimpered in pain as the weight on his leg was shifted. But the moist branch was much heavier than Fili had expected, and panic flooded him as _– No! –_ his arms failed him and it slipped back onto Kili's broken leg. A rush of adrenaline surged through Fili at the heart-wrenching cry that was torn from his poor brother's throat, and with renewed strength he heaved the cursed branch off of Kili's leg and let it fall on the stones beyond his feet.

Fili dropped to his knees by Kili's side and gently pulled his head into his lap, cradling it in his arms and whispering words of comfort over his brother's soft, high-pitched keens. "It's all right, Kee, the branch is off, everything's going to be fine, I'm here, I'll take care of you…" Tear tracks cut through the dust and grime on Kili's cheeks and he burrowed his face in Fili's coat. His little fingers clutched the warm fur tightly. Fili held him and stroked his dark hair as he got a good look at their surroundings for the first time.

They had obviously fallen into some sort of pit. It was rectangular in shape, about twice the length of a full-grown dwarf in width and twice that number in length. Three tall Men sitting atop one another's shoulders would barely have been able to see out over the edge of the pit. The walls were held in shape by grey blocks of slate, and the bottom was covered in round, smooth rocks of different sizes. Designed to break bones, not skin. _It's a wonder I didn't do any more than hit my head_ ,Fili mused.

He forced himself to think. What had Mum always taught him to do should he ever find himself in a sticky situation like this?

 _Look for immediate dangers._ There were none, as far as he could tell. _Except if something falls in here with you._ He dismissed the ridiculous thought as soon as it came. Kili was in no danger of extensive blood loss – yet. No, the only thing to trouble them soon would be a need for water. That, and the fact that they were stuck in a trapping pit without anyone else having knowledge of their whereabouts.

 _Care for injured ones_ , Fili told himself next. This was obvious to him. _I have to get that trouser leg off of him._ He wasn't quite sure why he was so determined it had to be done, but he decided to trust his gut. Something to do with infection, probably.

"Kee, I have to cut away the trouser leg. You have to stay still while I'm working."

"It h-hurts," Kili sniffled.

"I know. I'll be as quick as I can. Just try not to move." Fili settled himself by Kili's leg again and pulled a small dagger from his own outstretched boot. Carefully, he cut away at the bloodied cloth surrounding the shard of bone. He frowned when he came upon the ugly purple bruising on the leg, and, cutting further at the fabric with his knife, discovered that it ran almost all the way up to the knee. Fili ended up cutting away the entire trouser leg between Kili's knee and boot. He decided not to remove the latter so as to lend stability to the ankle. There came no responses from Kili save for a sharp intake of breath every time the cloth pulled on his injured leg a little too hard. Fili slowly peeled the cloth from the skin, wincing as it stuck with dried blood. A cold shiver ran down his spine as the material snagged on the protruding shard of bone and Kili cried out in pain. He wrapped his fingers around Fili's ankle as far as they would go. Little threads of the fabric still clung to the jagged edge of the bone with flecks of dried blood.

Fili gulped, hating what he was about to do. He made to remove the threads with the edge of the blade and his thumb. Suddenly Kili gasped in fear, seeing the sharp edge going towards his leg.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" Fili reassured him quickly. He lightly squeezed the hand on his boot. "I just need to…ah… _clean it_."

"Oh." Kili lowered his head, cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment.

Fili's skin crawled as he gingerly pulled the moistened thread away from the jagged edge of the bone. Thankfully, the job was done quickly. His stomach clenched as the thought of the healer Oin having to set the leg entered his mind. _Mahal, that's going to hurt…I hope they have something to knock him out first…_

 _If we ever get out of this pit._

He squeezed his brother's hand again. "Kili, I'm going to go look around the pit. Maybe there's a rope or something, or a good place to climb back up to the top."

"B-but what will you do then?" Kili was watching him with fearful eyes.

"I'd go get help, of course!"

"What if you f-fall into a d-different trap and hurt yourself?"

"I'll just go back the same way we came."

"N-no! Please just stay with me."

Fili huffed and sat back down with Kili's head in his lap. He agreed that leaving Kili alone was a bad idea. He could smell the metallic tint in the air that signalled an oncoming storm, and he couldn't leave Kili, with his fear of thunder, alone in a dark pit in the forest with a badly broken leg. But how long would it take for them to be found? Hours? _Days_ even? They wouldn't last that long. How often did Men check these traps? Or would Thorin or Mum somehow find them? They had no food with them, and only a meagre supply of water. He didn't dare try to splint Kili's leg, not trusting himself in his own inexperience. They would simply have to wait out the time, come what may, until they were found.

" _Thorin? … Mum? … Anyone!"_ he hollered suddenly, making Kili twitch in surprise. Fili had no confidence that he would be heard this time, but he had to keep calling for help as long as he could. Someone could easily pass by ten yards from the pit while they sat in silence, one of them badly hurt, and no-one would be any the wiser. He would have to call out regularly, in the hope that someone passing by might hear them.

Kili whimpered in pain through gritted teeth, and Fili gathered him up in his arms, tucking the dark head under his chin and humming softly. He kept giving Kili sips of water from the flask at his belt, but refused to take any for himself, despite the younger's insistence and the parched feeling in his throat. He yelled for help about every quarter of an hour. And so time snailed by. The white, pale patch that was the sun slowly crept across the sky, but not a single warm ray reached the brothers, as they were shadowed by the rim of the pit, the canopy of trees and grey clouds between them and the sky.

Then, in the afternoon, the rain hit. It had started as a light drizzle that Fili welcomed to wet his parched tongue – he had given the last of the water to Kili half an hour ago – but one glance down at his brother told him that he was faring less well. The lad's brow was furrowed in pain and beaded with sweat, and he was shivering though his forehead burned like a forge. As Fili pulled off his coat to wrap it around his brother, the rain worsened to a downpour like buckets of ice-cold water. They both greedily lapped at the raindrops, but that did nothing to still the gnawing in their stomachs. Still Fili called out for help every so often.

He was staring to get desperate. The sky was darkening, and not just with storm clouds, but with the end of the day and still no help had come. Kili's breathing rate had increased, though it seemed to hurt his chest when he inhaled too deeply, and he cried out in pain when fits of coughing jostled his leg. Fili did his best to shelter his brother from the rain, but he feared that Kili had gotten pneumonia. He remembered well his brother's first winter. Kili had been born prematurely, which accounted for his small size, and had almost died in the winter that followed. Fili had had to stay with Uncle Thorin for most of that winter because Mum and Da had been afraid of the five-year-old catching the illness too, and Aule knew they already had enough on their hands with keeping Kili alive.

 _Da._ What wouldn't Fili give to have their father find them now and take them home. But the Dwarf with the golden braids and charming brown eyes had died seven years ago – Fili had been ten at the time, Kili a day from turning five. The memory still haunted him.

There was a sudden, loud clap of thunder and lightning flashed in the sky, and Kili cried out in terror and burrowed further into his brother's arms, small hands clenching the front of Fili's rain-soaked tunic. Fili hugged the little one even closer to him, pressing his nose into the wet, dark hair and praying that someone would find them soon. He didn't know how much longer Kili could hold out now that the storm was adding fear to his list of problems. _Surely Mum or Uncle must be out looking by now…please let them be on their way here…_

He continued to try to comfort his terrified little brother as the thunder worsened. Any hope of being found started to fade into the darkness. The night was pitch black, save for brief flashes of lightning. He could just barely see the rim of the pit by the faint orange light –

 _Light! There's a lantern! Someone is here!_

"Kili! Kee, look there's a light!" Fili whispered triumphantly. Raising his voice as loud as he could, he hollered, _"Here! We're here! Uncle, is that you?"_

He was answered by a faint shout and the baying of a dog. Not like a dog chasing down its prey, but like one who had finally found someone he had sorely missed. _Bofur has a tracking dog,_ he _must be here!_ Fili realized.

Sure enough, three heads appeared at the rim of the pit: that of a shaggy, sodden brown dog, Bofur's fascinating hat and a wild black mane that must be –

"Uncle!" Fili cried out in relief.

"Is either of you hurt?" Thorin called back. His face was drawn with worry.

"Kee's leg is broken, and I think he's sick!"

The two Dwarven heads vanished for a moment and spoke quickly to each other; Bofur's shaggy dog continued to look happily down at them. Then the heads reappeared and Bofur said, "I'm gonna come down on a rope to get Kili. Then Thorin will pull you up, Fili."

Fili nodded, his grin reaching from ear to ear. _Everything's fine now! We're going home!_

Bofur hastily lowered himself down into the pit and crouched beside the brothers, holding out his arms for Kili.

"Kee, I'm going to give you to Mister Bofur. Uncle Thorin will help him get you out of here," Fili told the dark mop of hair as he tried to pry his brother off of him.

"B-but —"

"I'll be right behind you."

Kili relaxed and allowed himself to be gently lifted into Bofur's arms. Fili watched as Bofur, who was holding Kili in one arm, half clambering, half being pulled up by Thorin, reached the top of the pit. Then he grabbed the rope himself and was pulled, finally, _finally,_ out over the edge of the pit and into Thorin's embrace.

Bofur then handed the shivering bundle of furs to Thorin as soon as the latter had finished coiling up the rope. The uncle cursed as he pressed a hand against Kili's brow and held the lantern closer to his broken leg.

"He's burning up! I fear he may have gotten pneumonia, considering how long they've been stuck out here, poor lad's always been prone to illness. And that leg needs to be set. We have to get him to Oin's."

Bofur agreed, hoisting Fili up onto his back and whistling for his dog. The shaggy lump of fur led the way through the forest, and the Dwarves followed him at a brisk pace, going as fast as they dared through the rain without jostling Kili's leg.

"Will he be alright?" Fili asked fearfully as he rested his cheek on Bofur's shoulder and gazed down at his restless, wheezing brother.

"Never you worry, laddie. He pulled through pneumonia when he was less 'n a year old, he'll be able to handle it now," the toymaker reassured him.

"What about his leg?"

"Oin's a good healer, he'll fix it up. It's gonna hurt, but it'll heal properly."

"You did a good job of taking care of him, Fili," Thorin added.

Fili sighed in relief and closed his eyes, relaxing against Bofur's shoulders. _Everything is going to be fine._

Until Bofur piped up again. "Ye _do_ realize you're gonna be mucking out the ponies on your own for the next two months?"

The dwarfling on his back stiffened and his eyes flew open. _"What?!"_

In the dim light of the lantern, he could have sworn he saw the corners of Kili's lips twitch upwards.


End file.
